Pope Benedict XVI is generating a reputation as a man of the designer cloth – thanks to his penchant for wearing lipstick-red Prada shoes.

According to the scuttlebutt from Rome, the new pope is also turning heads by wearing Gucci sunglasses.

So much for modesty.

Inside the Vatican, the heads of hardcore traditionalists are spinning over the Prada pope’s decision to wear ceremonial robes designed by up-and-coming tailor Alessandro Cattaneo instead of those created by Annibale Gammarelli, the design house which has been responsible for papal attire since at least 1846.

According to the Roman Catholic newspaper The Tablet, the now celebrated “Cossack Wars” erupted after the Gammarellis outfitted the German-born pontiff for his debut blessing in a ceremonial cassock that hovered above the pope’s ankles, causing plenty of titters.

“Is it possible,” the paper asks, “that Papa Ratzinger did not find it very funny?”

Annibale Gammarelli, who has dismissed the pope’s defection as “an ungracious falsehood,” is said to be preparing to serve legal papers in a final bid to resecure his papal contract.